Golovkin KO's Brook In 5

By Marc Livitz: Kell Brook showed tremendous heart, yet it was his trainer who made the call to stop his quest to unseat middleweight king Gennady Golovkin in round five in front of a raucous crowd at the O2 Arena in London, England. The contest appeared to be somewhere near a 50/50 endeavor, depending on who is asked. In any case, IBF champion Kell put forth great effort as he tried to join the ranks in boxing history of those who attempted to jump from welterweight to middleweight.

After attempting to start quick, Golovkin (36-0, 33 KO’s) tagged Brook with a well placed, left handed body shot that left the Briton in a brief bit of trouble. Kell tied up with Gennady and answered shortly thereafter with a right uppercut. Brook popped the jab as the second commenced. Golovkin seemed content to wait for the right time to strike back as the intense London crowd howled with delight anytime their man connected or appeared to do so. Kell caught his Kazakh opponent with a left hook counter as he moved in and landed another left uppercut. Gennady answered with an overhand right which was then replied to with a nice combination by "Special K". So far, we had a good one on our hands. Golovkin had a slight bit of reddening on the left side of his face. The bout appeared to be tied 1-1 after two.

Gennady applied the pressure out of the gate to begin the third. He threw more lefts to the body as he tried to pressure the British champion either into a corner or into the ropes. Kell answered with a clean right to the face that was just a bit short of full power. As the fourth was underway, Brook (36-1, 25 KO’s) was showing a noticeable mouse under his right eye. As before, "GGG" looked to push his foe to the ropes, after which Kell connected yet again with a counter right hand. Gennady was carefully shooting towards the body before moving back to the jab in the ring’s center. He found some success as Brook continued to frustrate as confuse the unbeaten knockout artist.

Perhaps it was an angry Golovkin who charged out of his corner in the opening seconds of the fifth. He unloaded on Brook, mostly to the face and chin, who then threw his hands out in a questioning gesture. Just past the midway point of the period, "GGG" was landing body shots at will before connecting with successive, unanswered head shots. With just over a minute to spare, Brook’s trainer, Dominick Engel threw the white towel into the ring to halt the contest. Gennady Golovkin scored his twenty third consecutive knockout as much of the crowd booed in disappointment at the decision to stop the bout.

"Kell is a great fighter, but he’s not a middleweight", the victorious Golovkin said afterwards. "I brought a street fight and it was "game over". I think I lost the first or second round, but I thought I would win after a few rounds. He touched me, but I didn’t feel anything."

Some had observed Golovkin at the weigh-in yesterday and speculated that he was sick, to which he replied, "no, it’s not true. I’m fine." "I wasn’t smiling, but this is serious business. I rate my effort tonight about a "3". This was more like sparring."

In regard to his future, Golovkin skipped the suggestion of a showdown with Canelo Alvarez. "My goal is all the belts in the division, so I’d like to fight (WBO champion) Billy Joe Saunders. That’s the last belt so I can have them all."

Kell Brook spoke of his defeat to Golovkin and what took place in his corner after the first round. "I told them my (right) eye was gone", he said. "I stood there and was starting to settle in and I believe I would have taken over later on in the fight. As the fight went on, I thought, "he’s just a man like me." He’s a warrior and I don’t want to take anything away from him, but my eye was out."

"A fight of this magnitude should have carried on. Dominic Ingle has known me since I was nine years old. Let the fight go on. Knock me out."